Richmond Auto Repair

Meet Our Team

At The Shop VA in the Richmond, North Chesterfield and Midlothian area, our team of auto mechanics is interested in meeting you and learning about your vehicles. Our auto repair technicians are fascinated by cars. We specialize in Audi,BMW, MINI, and Mercedes-Benz vehicles, but we also have our own hobbies (which often involve cars!)

Kelly Shelton, the owner of The Shop VA, got into cars accidentally. Kelly found a dark blue 95 BMW 3 series for sale at $6,000 with 200,000 miles on it. BMW blew him away. It was sporty, attractive, and had more features than his parents’ new Hondas. He started tinkering with it. He was 16 years old and a sophomore in high school. During his junior year, he enrolled in the automotive training in the Chesterfield Technical Center Auto Program -- top of his class. During his senior year, he got an internship with a dealership, working with Dodge, Chryslers, and domestic vehicles. Kelly wanted to work for BMW so he spoke to the service manager at the BMW dealership so the dealership entered the program and hired him. He worked there through his junior and senior year. They hired him straight out of high school. Out of everyone who’s been through the tech program, he’s the only one to become a shop owner.

Kelly is a diehard BMW fan and says they are the best driving cars out there. When he decided to become a lifelong technician, his friend talked him into going to college so he did and earned a degree in business. After college, his dad talked him into working for a health insurance company. He started in sales, ended in management. By the time he left he was COO. That’s where he learned managerial skills. His management philosophy is “ I’m not a boss.” He leads by example rather than commanding people to do things.

Kelly Shelton opened The Shop in 2014. His biggest passions are cars and music. Kelly plays the drums, the guitar, and he sings. He likes everything from jazz to classical, hip hop, and rock. The Shop VA has a room-to-room sound system so each tech can choose what they listen to.

Adi Jakupovic

General Manager

Adi is the most tenured employee besides Kelly, and is the main point of contact for all of our customers. He helps educate them about repairs needed, and ensures that workflow in the shop is running as it should.

Adi is Bosnian, but was born in Germany, just outside Stuttgart. His family moved to the US in the 90s. He attended Henrico High School, and was a student at Virginia Commonwealth University before he left to pursue his career.

Adi is generally self-taught with his technical skills, and he has also completed extensive Service Advisor Training.

Adi got into cars while he was growing up in Germany. He watched new BMWs, Mercedes, and Porsches rolling out of the factories, and always thought they were really cool. He’s loved the German brands ever since.

Adi’s favorite thing about working on cars is the feeling of accomplishment he gets from putting something together and making it work. He enjoys doing performance work on cars, and doing cool, unique stuff, like swapping a corvette engine into an E36 M3. We are lucky to have someone so passionate about cars working here!

If you think Adi only ever works on cars, he has lots of other hobbies, too. When he’s not working on cars, he likes soccer, football, sports in general, hanging out with friends and his dogs, plus he’s a beer & whiskey aficionado. Adi has two rescue dogs, and no spouse or kids.

Adi is a superhero nearly every day, but he does say that “on a weekly basis, I see a car that has either been misdiagnosed or poorly fixed, and every time, we are able to fix the problem for the customer. A lot of estimates I see are “Blanket” repairs, where somebody just recommends replacing a whole slew of parts instead of taking the time to diagnose the problem.”

In the way of music, Adi likes everything from European folk music to rap.

Adi really likes the atmosphere at the shop and knowing that we all are here to do the right thing – what’s best for the customer.

By the way, Adi is a big Porsche aficionado. You can see photos of Adi and his vintage Porsche project in the Gallery. Check out the photo of Adi in the back of his Porsche! We think those photos of his Porsche are pretty cool!

Nathan Jones

Shop Foreman

Nathan is our top guy. He can fix any problem and never runs away from a challenge. He is a Virginia native, and attended Monacan High School in Chesterfield County, before attending the Nascar Technical Institute (a branch of Universal Technical Institute, or UTI) for automotive training. He then enrolled in the BMW STEP Program (a program at UTI), which he completed and came out as a Level 1 BMW Master Technician. Since then, he has kept up with current BMW training, and has also achieved multiple certifications for Mini Cooper as well as Mercedes Benz.

Nathan’s first car was a fixer upper. He had to learn how to get it running in order to get to school and work. That’s how he first got into cars.

Nathan loves the constantly evolving technology in the automotive industry, and the continued learning that goes along with it. He enjoys learning and being challenged to get better.

When Nathan’s not working on cars, his other hobbies include motorcycles, spending time with family, vacationing, snowboarding, going fast, building sketchy things with friends. You’ll have to ask him about the building of the sketchy things because we didn’t get much detail on that.

Nathan is a pretty humble guy and he says “I’m more behind the scenes, so I don’t feel like the customers directly attribute their experience to what I’ve done, but I believe my attention to detail and quality of work helps contribute to our reputation.” Everyone else here at the shop can certainly attest to that!

As far as music goes, Nathan likes reggae, hip hop, and he also listens to Elliot in the Morning (the radio talk show).

Nathan is married to the love of his Life, Molly. They have two beautiful daughters, Millie and Hazel. He also has two adopted dogs.

Nathan loves the family-oriented environment at the shop. He also loves working as a team to accomplish a common goal.

Jeff Crider

Technician

Jeff is the newest member to our team, but is no stranger to working on German cars. Jeff grew up in the Richmond area, but spent some time living in other states. Ultimately, he made his home back in Virginia, and has been living here for the last 14 years. Like Nathan, Jeff graduated from UTI and has spent 18 years working on BMW, Audi, Mini Cooper, and Mercedes Benz. Aside from the extensive experience working on these car brands, Jeff also has the factory training to go along with it.

The first job Jeff ever had was working at a gas station. Every Saturday, the gas station would host Muscle Car Club events. He's been hooked on cars ever since!

Jeff has stayed in the industry so long because he genuinely enjoys the work that he does. He loves working with his hands and enjoys the satisfaction of taking something broken and making it work like new. He show's us that every day!

When Jeff isn't working on cars, he enjoys riding Motorcylces, 4 Wheelers, and going camping with his kids.

We said before that Jeff gets a lot of satisfaction from the work he does, and one example of that was the time a customer came in after doing some work on his. The customer thought he would need to replace the engine because of the noise that was coming from the car. After Jeff properly diagnosed the issue, he was able to find that the customer had just left a sensor unplugged. Jeff was able to fix the car quickly and get it back to the customer without needing to perform major repairs. Since that visit, the customer came to trust Jeff so much that he will only let Jeff touch it.

Jeff's musical tastes are all over the place. He enjoys listening to Country, Bluegrass, all types of Rock music, Hip Hop, Punk Rock, and Hardcore. You never know what you'll walk into when you go into Jeff's bay. It may even be Elliot in the Morning or classical!

You could say Jeff is a bit of a family man. He and his "Ole' Lady" have 4 Kids. 3 Boys and 1 Girl! And although Jeff loves dogs, he currently does not have any.

What Jeff likes most about working at The Shop is the Team Atmosphere and the focus on detail and quality of work. Jeff is also a major contributor to that team atmosphere, and it is a true pleasure seeing his happy smiling face every day.

Noah Dubiel

Production Support Specialist

Noah is a Richmond, VA native, and went to Midlothian High School – the same high school as Kelly. He is currently enrolled at a local community college where he is starting an automotive technical training program. Noah helps the shop run smoothly by providing support in the front and back. He provides shuttle service for customers, picks up parts, washes cars, and brings a positive attitude every day. Everyone here appreciates his positive attitude!

As far as how Noah got into cars, his dad always had cool cars when Noah was growing up. He also loved playing racing video games, reading about cool new cars, and going to the track with his dad where he raced his cars.

Noah loves driving new cars, feeling the differences from one car to the next, and all the different technologies.

When Noah’s not working on cars, he loves to watch and play soccer, play games with his younger brother, and he also loves to hang out with his dog Kevin. Kevin is a French bulldog. Noah has no spouse or kids.

All of our guys here are superheroes. Here’s something that happened to Noah. There was a day a few months ago where we HAD to get the car out that night in order for the customer to make it to the track the next day. The part he needed was not available anywhere locally, so Noah drove 6 hours round trip to pick up this part for him so we could complete the car the same day – Which we did! What do you think of that?

Noah’s favorite kinds of music are hip-hop and rock. Just NOT country music. (Did we mention that he does NOT like country music?!)

Noah feels like he can be himself at the shop. The culture reflects his personality really well, so he feels comfortable coming into work every day and enjoys being here.